@Harjeli
IMO yes, Vinland Saga is a good historical manga but it still come second behind Iwaaki's history work. Go read his Archimedes piece, also very good.
For what I've read on the topic, the fact that he saw his mom getting abused is statisticaly quite standard for an abuser. Not a waste of page, like you state @kronix, just character build up that nobody should take as an excuse for what he did either.
@b33fy
Actually, this exact situation is currently happening in several countries of the Guinea Gulf Coast : formerly colonial economy forcibly switched to chicago school liberalism under the influence of the IMF. Food production (mainly rice and millet) was sufficient to allow export but were...